My apologies to everyone who was unable to post over the last couple days. It seems there was an issue with the anti-spam plugin. I’ve disabled the plugin until the I can get the issue resolved or regress to the last working version.
Talking about superheroes naturally leads to a discussion of comic books. Comic books as a format first appeared in 1934, and are one of two art forms attributed as indigenous to America (the other being jazz). While comic books have become synonymous with superheroes, the medium–along with its cousin the graphic novel–has been used to tell many different types of stories. Fantasy fiction is no exception. I can remember seeing Marvel’s Conan, Krull and Red Sonja on the bookshelves of my favorite local comic book shop back in the day. I personally collected the Epic imprint run of Elfquest.
There has been a recent resurgence of fantasy fiction in comic books, …Read the rest»
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One of the arguments I offered against the stagnancy of fantasy fiction was the proliferation of sub-genres. We’re all familiar with epic fantasies like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, or the sword-and-sorcery of Conan. Urban fantasy has risen in popularity thanks to Anita Blake and her contemporaries, while Temeraire has lead the resurgence in historical fantasy. The other sub-genre I listed was superheros.
The inclusion of superhero fiction as a fantasy sub-genre probably seems erroneous at first glance. Most superheroes we’re familiar with are aliens, use technology, or got their powers from a science experiment. Wouldn’t that make superheroes science fiction? …Read the rest»
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I thought that a great way to kick off the new Pens & Swords would be to reprint the following article I wrote for a debate topic on Helium.
The publishing world, much like Hollywood, tends to play it safe. When a book becomes a bestseller, not only does the publisher seek to squeeze more of the same out of the author, but competitors hungrily hunt for stories of a similar vein. This behavior results in a flood of overworked settings and bland clones.
But it doesn’t mean the fantasy genre is stagnant. …Read the rest»
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It’s been a couple years since the last time I re-designed my website. The bug bit me following Pens & Swords’ four-year anniversary last month. I’ve also been reading up on Internet writing, which resulted in some ideas I want to try out.
I first started Pens & Swords as a chronicle of my experience writing and publishing Maiden of Pain. The blog’s scope expanded after Maiden saw print by necessity, but I think it’s gone too far and I want to refocus. …Read the rest»
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WotC released the excerpt on multiclassing this week. I’m a purist when it comes to PCs. Multiclassing never held much appeal to me, especially with all the restrictions in earlier editions. I liked the system in 3/3.5E, though I know there were some imbalances that got exploited.
Multiclassing went through some pretty serious revision in 4E. First, PCs can’t multiclass until they reach 11th level. …Read the rest»
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